Fairest
by kismet-wayfinder
Summary: oneshot. not set in the movieverse. In the wake of a foriegn kindgom needing a bride to suit their king, and only the fairest will do, what lengths will the Princess called Snow go to?


**I own nothing.  
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><p>"Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?" the princess asked in a low, but poignant voice, her ice-grey eyes sharp as they stared into the looking-glass.<p>

Slowly but surely, a figure arose, swimming into view before the princess's eyes. It was a familiar visage, and as it came into clearest view, the princess gave an almost audible sigh. Had it really come to all this?

"Oh, dear sister!" she called aloud, stepping partially out into the halls, away from the room she'd been standing within. "Sister, darling! Come here, please!"

Waiting patiently as she stood there, halfway in and halway out of the room, the princess watched as her younger sister walked down the hall, approaching her. "Yes?" she called back to her as she moved along. "Sister, you've summoned me?"

"Just a moment of your time, if you will," the elder princess answered her, stepping back fully into the room as her sibling also entered therein. "Will you, please, look into this mirror of mine, and tell me what you see?"

Feeling a bit confused, the younger princess returned, "Isn't this mother's mirror - the one you received after she was found slain in the garden?"

"You know that is certainly is…" the elder of the two sisters answered. "I merely wish to see how well it does work. It's said to be _magical_, as you no doubt have heard tell of."

"Oh, I always told myself that mother made that bit up to entice others to stay away from it - her maid servants and all. After all, once Mother died, lots of her ladies-in-waiting did wind up disappearing. Remember Roweena, found out in the woods? What of Elsabeth, found strung amongst the wire fences?"

"Hush now, Rose," the elder princess said to her sister. "Let us not speak of these things now, they are too sad, and far too tragic to waste our thoughts on. Simply do as I ask now, and look into the looking-glass for me."

Giving a bit of a nonchalant shrug in response, the younger of the sisters did at last as she was told and moved to stand before the mirror.

"Tell me, then, what do you see…?" the elder one asked her.

Staring clearly ahead into the mirror, the younger princess stared at her reflection and gave her report. "Well, I see my own face, of course. My pale skin, my green eyes, my hair - golden and curled into little q's. I see myself, naturally. What else would you expect?"

"I see…" the elder princess replied, before calling aloud, "O mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?"

Looking over her sister's shoulder, to also peer into the glass, the elder princess did not see her own partial reflection in addition to the blonde one's- the sole relfection was of her younger sister, Rose, alone.

"I am so sorry that it's had to come to this…" the eldest princess then said, much to the confusion of her younger sister. "You see," she said, lifting a piece of paper and a letter opener. "We received invititations recently, for the princesses and maidens of thid castle here in this kingdom to attend a foreign, royal ball… It is _said_ that the king of said yonder kingdom will choose the fairest of us all to marry unto himself, in light of the recent death of his wife."

"Our father, the king, has agreed to this?"

"What else could he do? Our kindgom might very well fall if do not join our efforts together. Naturally, this other king wouldn't have asked our father to forfeit his own wife under _normal_ circumstances, but this foreign king has higher standards than some others - only the _fairest of the fair_ will suffice."

"Mother was surely the fairest of us all… until we lost her," the little princess murmured. "So this king cannot actually marry the fairest, what with her passing..."

"I know, it's true," the older princess replied, placing a hand on her sister's shoulder as she approached her from behind. "And every day since, I've asked this mirror, just who else is in line by way of fairest, to take the throne alongside the king of this other country, to unite our kingdoms and their riches thereof as one."

"And so far, how has it answered you?" the younger one answered naively, before giving a gasp as her older sister brought the letter opener she'd been holding around to the front of Rose's throat, slicing the skin thereof once, quickly and sharply, before doing it twice more.

Unable to speak, the little princess simply stood and watched her own reflection as the blood began to flow from her slit throat - first in trickles, and then in larger streams - trickling and oozing its way down her chest, soaking into the top of her periwinkle blue dress. Holding steadfast to her younger sister even as her body weakened and fell back against her own, the older princess watched the bleeding reflection, witnessing the sight of her sister's life fading away from her quickly.

"Mirror, mirror on the wall!" she called out, even as the princess in her arms succumbed to the angel of death. "_Now_ show me, just _who_ is the fairest of them all?"

Morphing and changing, slowly but surely and eventually, the older princess finally was able to look into the glass and see what she so desired to lay her eyes upon: her own, fair reflection.

Letting her sister fall to the floor, dead, the remaining princess brought a blood-stained hand to her lips, before painting them daintily with her sister's blood. "Indeed, mirror, thou art quite right - I am now, and forevermore will be, the _fairest_ of them all."


End file.
